KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 581 private housing projects have been deemed "sick" or delayed, says Deputy Local Government Development Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir.

"As of Feb 28, a total of 145 private housing projects are behind time while 436 are categorised as sick.

"This is out of 3,117 licensed private housing projects," he told a press conference at the Parliament media centre here on Tuesday (March 28).

He added that 20 sick projects involving 1,784 units had been completed and received their certificate of completion and compliance (CCC).

"Six other projects involving 2,241 units are being monitored very closely and are not categorised as going smoothly," he added.

He said the situation had been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic which caused a shortage of building materials and workers.

"(We are looking at) the second quarter of 2024 for a full recovery," he added.

Owing to this, he said the ministry expected an additional 181 housing projects to be delayed, bringing the total number to 326 by the end of this year.

He added that the number of sick projects is expected to hit 718 by year's end.

As for abandoned projects, Akmal said there were 110 of these involving 23,536 units and affecting 13,931 buyers.

He said five projects – namely Dolomite Park Avenue and Casa Melati, Gombak; Taman Petaling Utama, Selangor; Pantai Avenue Bukit Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur; and one in Bukit Besar, Terengganu – were now revived and off the abandoned list.

He also said the ministry had received a one-off additional allocation of RM20mil to revive abandoned housing projects.

He said the allocation was in addition to the RM4.9mil provided for the purpose earlier.

Akmal urged state governments to help the ministry identify abandoned housing projects which could be revived.